Lunch at Sevy’s in Dallas with Frei Brothers viticulturalist Jim Collins

by Teresa Gubbins

Sevy's shrimp cakes + Frei Brothers' chardonnay = good food-and-wine pairing.

Frei Brothers' winegrower Jim Collins

One of the benefits of the annual Savor Dallas festival is the fact that it brings winemakers to the city, such as Jim Collins, who works for Gallo/Frei Brothers as their senior director of Coastal Winegrowing.

Collins manned a booth at both the Wine Stroll on Friday night and the International Grand Tasting at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel on Saturday where he poured Frei Brothers' Reserve sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and merlot. He did more pouring on Friday at a small lunch at Sevy's.

Frei Estates wine

Frei was founded in the 1890s by Andrew Frei, who bought a patch of land in Sonoma County and promptly began making wine. Frei started selling its grapes to Gallo in the 1930s; Gallo eventually bought the winery in 1978.

All of Frei Brothers' wines are termed "Reserve," but with an annual production of about 200,000 cases a year, they're readily available in supermarkets. Prices range from $15 for sauvignon blanc, to $20 for chardonnay and merlot, to $30 for pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon. Chardonnay is their most popular.

Sevy's seafood sampler

Collins used words like "approachable" to describe them. They're definitely made for pairing with food. At Sevy's, that included a pasta dish, a seafood sampler, and the restaurant's signature shrimp cakes, whose fried crust and rich seafood center was a good foil for the zesty sharpness of the chardonnay. The merlot seemed pleasant if ordinary, but the sauvignon blanc was a trip, all flowers and passion fruit.

Collins' other theme was sustainability, which he said he appreciated because it was an issue everyone could agree on, whether politically conservative or liberal. It's a priority at Frei where they use recycled materials and conserve water and energy, with an eye towards reducing their own carbon footprint.